Navy NCIS: Veritas et Aequitas
by Might N' Magic
Summary: Case file where Gibbs, Tony, and Kate investigate a burned corpse found in the parking lot of a Marine bar outside a base, first thought to be an accident, a closer look reveals murder. Last chapted added, enjoy the finished product!
1. Death by Fire

Larry Jackson never intended to drink quite so many beers. It was after all just another night out with the guys. The Patriots had lost in a stunning upset victory for the Detroit Lions. Losing to the Lions always put Jackson in a bad mood.

He stumbled out of The Sands around one in the morning with his friends, swaggering about and slurring with false bravado to make themselves feel better about losing the game. It was a chilly night, the air was frosty and steamed out in front of him as he breathed. Larry could barely make out his car in the distance, he had no intention of driving home, but he wanted to get to his cell phone so he could call his wife for a ride. He never made it to his car.

Halfway there he stumbled and fell. He picked himself up and brushed himself off, but his hands came away bloody from his clothes. He panicked and began to brush him clothes feverishly with his hands until he discovered the blood was not his own. He looked down to the ground and discovered a small pool of partially frozen blood along with a badly charred body in front of him. Larry dropped to the ground to empty his stomach of its previous occupants then rushed hurriedly over to his car. His first call was not to his wife.

"So Tony, how was the date last night?"

Tony Dinozzo glanced up from his desk at Kate. He was wearing his usual semi casual suit and sunglasses, which seemed unusual for indoors, but Kate was sure there was a good story behind it.

"Didn't go exactly as planned."

"Oh, why not?"

"She wasn't my type."

Kate smiled and pressed the questioning. There were very few girls she thought Tony considered not his type.

"And what type is that?"

Dinozzo smiled up at her. "The sane type."

Before Kate could further question what he meant by that, Leroy Jethro Gibbs entered the office with his usual professional gait.

"Kate, Tony, let's go."

"Where to boss?" Tony was glad to have Kate deflected.

"Sands."

"The Marine bar?" Kate questioned.

Gibbs gave her a knowing nod and they headed out the door of the office. Soon they were in the parking lot of The Sands, only this time in the light of day. The local police had sealed off the area with the familiar yellow police tape, but now they were nowhere to be seen as NCIS people were swarming all over the area.

"Kate." Gibbs gestured towards the camera she carried. She immediately snapped into action and began to take photos.

"Crispy critter."

Gibbs didn't smile at Tony's comment, though Kate threw him a withering sarcastic glare.

"So who is he?"

"Lance Corporal James Rivers."

Gibbs handed Kate a small evidence bag with the Corporal's dog tags inside. Nearby Tony was speaking to the owner of The Sands.

"You're Victoria Johnson correct?"

She smiled at him coyly. "Yes that's me."

"Victoria...Vicky?"

"Vicky is fine."

Tony's expression immediately melted into an easy and inviting smile.

"Well, Vicky, do you know a Lance Corporal James Rivers?"

She shrugged. "The name doesn't sound particularly familiar. I get hundreds of Marines rolling through here on a daily basis, don't get to a first name basis with many of them. Some of the old timers that come through have some good stories, been coming through for awhile, I know 'em."

Vicky gestured back up to the bar across the parking lot. "There's probably a dozen lance corporals in there right now, can't tell ya any one of their names."

"Anything unusual happen in the bar in the last few days?"

"Depends on what you consider unusual. I run a marine bar, anything and everything can and has happened in there. There is no unusual anymore. There were a few fights over the last couple days, one particularly rough one last night, but I wasn't here for that, my bar manager was running the place."

"And his name is?"

Again a coy smile erupted onto her face. "Samantha Johnson."

"Johnson? Any relation?"

"A little one, she's my twin sister."

Tony rocked back a bit on his heels and chuckled. "Twins eh?"

"Since we were born."

"If you could tell me her address and phone number I'd greatly appreciate it ma'am."

She rattled off some numbers that Tony quickly took down in his notepad. He nodded to her and went to close his pad when she reached out and touched his arm.

"Don't you need my number too? You know, in case you have to ask me some more questions or something?"

Tony nodded, still grinning, and took down her number too. Gibbs called everyone over to him to gather the information.

"What do we know?"

Kate stepped in first. "Looks like someone dipped him in gasoline and lit him on fire. The person who found him has no connection to Lance Corporal Rivers at all, just happened to stumble across him on his way to his car at night. No obvious cause of death is apparent."

"Other than the bonfire of course." Tony interjected.

She threw him a sidelong glare and turned back to Gibbs. "Other than that."

"We know the bar owner has a twin sister."

"Somehow I don't think that counts as useful information."

Tony looked hurt. "It could be."

Gibbs turned to Ducky expectantly.

"I'm afraid he's right, at least about the cause of death. I don't see anything here other than the fact that he was lit on fire as a possible cause of death. Strange though, if it were a murder, why pour gasoline on him? It's not a particularly effective form of murder, it's slow, it's painful, it doesn't even necessarily always result in death. It's a nasty, messy way to kill someone."

"Lance Corporal found burned in front of a well known Marine bar. We have a lot of unanswered questions."

Gibbs nodded towards Ducky. "Then find me some answers."

They headed back to NCIS headquarters where they set to work at once.

"We need to compile a list of all Rivers' friends, family, commanding officers and anyone else he might have spent time with before his death."

"Kind of hard to question friends and family about a murder victim before we know if it's even a murder, or what the cause is."

Tony glared at Kate. "What do we do until then? Sit around and stare at the wall waiting for Ducky to find something?"

"You could always go down and help him."

"Or I could start reading the encyclopedia now and save myself the trouble."

"So we wait, Tony."

"You know the ancient Greeks used a chemical concoction we call Greek fire to light enemy ships on fire. See, back then it was common practice to board an enemy ship, or shoot flaming arrows from afar to try and sink it. But the Greeks pumped seawater through jets filled with Greek fire and essentially turned their ships into floating flame-throwers."

Gerald gazed bleary eyed at the corpse in front of him as Ducky recounted yet another useless fact of trivia.

"It's unfortunate though, the recipe for Greek fire did not survive to..."

Gerald did notice when Ducky stopped talking, and he leaned in over the body to try and see what Ducky was staring at.

"What is it?"

"Well Gerald, it appears our fried friend here had some help on his way beyond the grave." Ducky gestured to the back of River's skull. "We can deduce several things about this body from the level if intactness. First of all, he still has fingers and toes, which usually burn off pretty fast in a fire like this."

"So he wasn't on fire for very long?"

"Precisely. Moreover, the back of his skull still has most of its hair, and there is a lot of blood mixed and baked in here. I think that if we take a look at our young friend's skull x ray, we will find our answer."

Ducky turned to the wall where the x-rays of the body had been hung by an assistant. He turned on the lamps behind them and they immediately illuminated.

"Yes, just as I suspected, a severe trauma to the base of the skull. That was the cause of death. That kind of blunt force trauma, and that many fracture points on the cranium would have caused several subdermal hematomas. Some of that would be hard to prove now, as I suspect some of the bleeding points in the brain would have boiled away."

"Then why light him on fire afterwards? We still know the cause of death, and this kind of murder doesn't usually leave behind much forensic evidence anyway. So why the fire?"

"That is the question indeed."

Ducky moved to the phone and dialed Gibbs' office quickly.

"Jethro, could you come down here please? I think we may have something."

"On my way."

Gibbs immediately moved from his office, grabbing Kate and Tony on the way down. Soon they were all gathered around the remains of Lance Corporal Rivers in the morgue.

"I must say I was rather confused as to why anyone would light this poor young man on fire at first. I was even getting ready to rule it an accidental death based on the lack of any overt trauma that might suggest offensive force against him. But as you can see here in his x-ray, he suffered a massive trauma to the base of his skull."

Tony immediately jumped in. "So someone bashed him over the head then torched him? Why torch him at all, especially if you are going to leave his dog tags on him anyway?"

"Wait a minute, where were the dog tags found?"

Tony looked up at Kate in surprise and mild confusion. "In his hand."

"Why wouldn't they be around his neck?" Kate paused for a second in thought before continuing. "Ducky, can you confirm the identity on his dog tags with dental records from base files?"

"I would love to Kate, but unfortunately whoever lit him on fire also totally smashed his jaw bone. It could take weeks to reconstruct his dental records accurately. The burning destroyed any hope of a finger print or retinal match, and there isn't much hope of a positive DNA match either. If you want to ascertain this young man's identity, I'm afraid you won't be able to get much help from me on this one."

Gibbs turned and smiled at Kate and Tony. "Don't worry Ducky, I have a crack team of investigators at my disposal."

"Thanks boss," Tony smiled.

Gibbs turned to leave and let Tony and Kate do some brainstorming, but as he left he turned one last time to Tony.

"Dinozzo, take off those sunglasses. Last I checked we were indoors."

"Sure thing boss."

Tony slowly removed his sunglasses to reveal a rather large black eye all over the left side of his face.

Kate smirked at him. "Gosh Tony, what happened to you? Lost a fight?"

He gave her a halfhearted smile back. "You could say that."

"By the looks of it I'd say it happened last night," Ducky ventured.

Tony turned to glare at Ducky for his interjection.

"Last night? Your date beat you up?"

"I told you she wasn't sane."

Kate smiled broadly and they made their way out of the morgue.

"Ducky, could you send your information up to Abby, maybe she can reconstruct the way the accident happened?"

"Sure Kate, and I hope she can answer one question that has indeed been troubling me."

"What's that?"

"The dog tags. They seem to have been placed there after he was killed, and there is some sort of accelerant on them, so they went through the fire, but they look undamaged."

"You think they are someone else's dog tags planted there?" Tony ventured.

"It certainly looks that way on the outside. Either way it is a mystery. If they were meant to be in the fire, they wouldn't have necessarily burned, as the strength of stainless steel should be able to withstand a fire, but they shouldn't be in such fine condition." Ducky mulled it over for a moment. "Either way they shouldn't be in his hand like that."

"Anything else?"

"I have a test of two I think I may try and run to try and be as helpful as I can." He paused before continuing. "You know the first dog tags in America were used after the Civil War. Half of the bodies buried in the south were marked unidentified, and most soldiers had to fashion their own makeshift tags to identify them, or risk never having their remains returned to their families."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Fascinating Ducky, really."

Kate however seemed sobered by it. "We'd better make sure we find out who this really is then. There's a family out there that deserves to know their son is dead, and they deserve a burial service."

"Right."

With Abby and Ducky both working in the lab, and possibly days away from coming up with any real fact to help them out, Gibbs decided they should visit the base Rivers was stationed at to see if they could determine if he had any possible enemies.

Their first stop was Rivers' bunk.

"It's rather tidy in here."

Gibbs glared over at Tony. "He was a Marine."

"Well, that explains it then."

After searching for twenty minutes and coming up with nothing unusual, they made ready to leave.

"Too bad he died before he had a chance to spend his little nest egg."

Tony gestured to a medium sized stack of ten dollar bills piled in his footlocker.

"Wonder what he was saving it for," Kate said.

"I'm more interested in finding who stopped him from being able to spend it." Gibbs shot back as he walked out of the room.

Next they went to the office of the base commander, General Jack Owens.

"Lance Corporal Rivers hasn't reported for duty in the past two days. We sent a picture of him to the local police department and questioned his barrack mates but nothing turned up. Sad to see the kid go too, he was a hard worker. Never complained, always on time, friendly, tough, a real Marine."

"What were Lance Corporal Rivers' duties on the base?"

"Menial labor in the print office. Printed out work orders, official documents and the like."

"Did he have any problems with other Marines in the print office or his barracks?"

General Owens thought it over for a moment. "None that come to mind. I checked his record before you got here; he's never had an administrative reprimand of any sort. Impeccable record by all accounts."

Gibbs gave Kate and Tony a look that invited them to ask any questions they had on their minds.

"What about close friends? Is there anyone he was especially close to?" Kate asked.

"Not sure. You'd have to ask the Marines in the print office and his barracks for that."

They were about to leave when Gibbs ventured one last question.

"Has anyone else been reported missing from the base in the last couple days?"

"Funny you should ask, but yes. Corporal Frank Summerville was reported missing this morning. We checked with the local police, who said they found his car in a bad part of a local town, stripped for parts and gutted. No idea where he is, but the search is still in its infancy."

Gibbs thanked the General and they left his office. They immediately made their way to the print office, talking as they went.

"This doesn't sound like the sort of kid that has a lot of enemies who would murder him."

Gibbs agreed with Kate. "No it doesn't. Something doesn't add up here."

"You think Corporal Summerville has something to do with it don't you?" Tony asked.

"Certainly makes me wonder."

When they got to the print office, they were sent to see Sergeant Maria Rivaro.

"What can I do for you Agent Gibbs?"

"You can tell me about Lance Corporal James Rivers."

Her expression changed from one of dull formality to genuine brightness.

"Good kid. Never late, never sick, never complains. He always goes the extra mile, always helps out when we need him, and everyone likes him, including myself. I even recommended him for a promotion on his last fit rep. Everyone has been worried about him since we heard he went missing."

Gibbs nodded. "Sergeant, we found a burned body in the parking lot of The Sands with Lance Corporal Rivers' dog tags on it. Do you know why anyone might want to kill Lance Corporal Rivers?"

Sergeant Rivaro rocked back in her seat in shock.

"Rivers is dead?"

"It looks that way. Did Rivers have any problems with other Marines here in the print office? Or any friends he was closer to than others?"

Rivaro was visibly shaken by the news Gibbs had given her, but she composed herself like a Marine and went on.

"Enemies? No, Rivers was well liked by everyone, and never caused problems here or anywhere else on the base."

"And friends?" Gibbs pushed further.

"No one in the print office as far as I know. He worked primarily with Corporal Jaynes. One moment."

Rivaro punched her phone to turn on the intercom system and asked for Corporal Jaynes to report to her office at once. Within moments a twenty something young man entered the room.

"Corporal Jaynes reporting as ordered ma'am."

"Corporal, this is Agent Gibbs from NCIS. He needs to ask you some questions about Lance Corporal Rivers."

"Yes ma'am, I will answer to the best of my abilities."

Rivaro gestured to Gibbs, as if telling him to go ahead. He nodded back to her to acknowledge that.

"Corporal, do you know if Rivers had any friends that he spent more time with than others?"

"Sure. James is always hanging out with Frank over in the motor pool."

Kate leaned in with an inquisitive look. "Frank...?"

"Oh, sorry, I mean Corporal Frank Summerville. He fixes Jeeps in the motor pool, he's a mechanic. If you really wanted to know anything private about James I'd ask him."

None of the NCIS agents let anything out about how this news affected them. Gibbs calmly took over back control of the questioning.

"Did he have any enemies? Was anyone particularly annoyed with him?"

"Nope. Everyone loves James." Corporal Jaynes fell slightly out of his parade rest stance and turned to face Gibbs.

"If I may ask sir, what exactly is going on?"

"Lance Corporal River's body was found burned in the parking lot of The Sands."

Jaynes, like Rivaro, was too shaken to say anything at first.

"If either of you remember anything important, or hear anything, you can reach me here."

Gibbs handed Rivaro his card then left with Tony and Kate in tow.

Back at the NCIS office, Gibbs, Kate and Tony met to brainstorm ideas and try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

"So we have two missing Marines, best friends, one turns up dead in the parking lot of a Marine bar. The other is missing, but hasn't been missing for as long as the dead one. Dead one has been murdered, and has also been made unidentifiable but has perfectly good dog tags in his hand. Coincidence?" Kate thought aloud.

Tony snorted at that. "Don't think so. Too much doesn't add up, and there's no way the two of them could have gone missing together like that without it being connected." Tony stopped talking for a moment and appeared to be mulling an idea over in his head. "I think we need to find out where they both were the night before River's body was found."

"And how do we do that?"

Tony smiled and held up a piece of paper with some numbers on it. "Well we have a bar owner and bar manager who are always at The Sands, couldn't hurt to ask them if they remember something on that particular date."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll go check on it then."

Tony immediately scrunched up his face in a mock wounded expression aimed towards Gibbs.

"Come on boss. I had a connection with her, I can get her to talk a lot easier than Kate could."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Alright Dinozzo, talk to them and see what you can get out of them. But remember, you're on duty."

Tony grinned broadly and began to walk away. "Right boss."

"And Dinozzo, you might want to bring a helmet. Wouldn't want you getting hurt again."

Kate beamed triumphantly as Tony walked away in a scowl.

"Kate, go talk to Abby and see what she has on this. When Tony gets back we can all compare notes."

"Right. Where will you be?"

He gave her a look that said to leave him alone. "Investigating."

"Right."


	2. Fake Out

Kate was met by a loud blast of music when she entered Abby's lab.

"Abby!"

She moved around the corner of a table filled with vials and beakers and saw Abby bobbing her head to the blaring rock music.

"Abby!" Kate yelled again.

Finally Abby turned to the sound of Kate's voice and she smiled with embarrassment. Abby picked up a remote off the counter and clicked off the stereo.

"Sorry, it helps me work."

Kate offered her a thin lipped sympathetic smile. "It's alright Abby, do you have anything on the Rivers case yet?"

"Well, Ducky was right about the problems in identification. I did a three dimensional scan on all the jaw fragments and tried to reconstruct it in the computer, but the degree of fracture was just too high, I couldn't get anything out of it."

"So we have no way to identify the body?"

"It looks that way. The retinas were burned off, the fingerprints as well. The blood in the body is there, but the DNA in it is damaged from the fire."

"What about the cause of death?"

"I ran some tests on chemicals in what was left of the tissue. The fire must have taken place before rigor mortis set in on the body. Rigor mortis usually sets in as early as ten minutes after the person dies. This fire was set on someone who was still alive. The chemicals aren't balanced right for someone who was set on fire after rigor mortis had set in."

"So he was still alive when he was burned?"

"Yes, though I can't tell you how well he was doing at the time." She paused while bringing up a computer model on her screen.

"I can however tell you that the person who caused the trauma to his skull was probably shorter than him. I modeled it on the computer, the angle of attack would have to be beneath the base of the skull, which means someone shorter than him swinging in an upward motion."

Kate wrote that on her notepad then turned to leave, but stopped to recheck a question.

"So there's no way at all to determine the identity?"

"Not right now. I have some DNA reconstruction models working, but they are weeks off."

Kate looked crestfallen at the news, but Abby still looked upbeat.

"Is there something else then?"

Abby beamed with the usual bright smile she has when she makes a grand discovery.

"Yes. Ducky didn't have much else to give me that I could even run a test on, but he kept reiterating how confused he was over the dog tags. So I checked them out."

Kate seemed confused. "What could you possibly get from a pair of dog tags?"

"You'd be surprised. First I checked to see what kind of steel they were made from. Most dog tags are made from 310 grade stainless steel, which has a really high point of malleability."

Kate looked totally lost now. "Abby."

"Sorry, basically it's a high grade steel that shouldn't melt from a gasoline fire. Here's where it gets really confusing though. The steel in this dog tag is actually 409 grade stainless steel. 409 is the cheapest grade, it should have melted under the stress from the fire, even if it didn't last very long as Ducky suspects."

"Why is it a lower grade? And why wasn't it affected then?"

"The lower grade must have been a manufacturing issue, I don't know about that. But the real problem was why it didn't melt when it should have."

"And?"

"I ran a chromatographic analysis on the dog tags to search for other accelerants on it. It turns out there's a large amount of alcohol on it, it coated it below the gasoline."

"Why does that matter?"

Abby's smile turned predatory as she closed in for the kill.

"Because alcohol burns at a lower temperature than gasoline. It insulated the dog tags from the heat produced by the burning gasoline. I still don't know if they are really his dog tags or not, and it'll take weeks before I get any results from the DNA reconstruction or jaw reconstruction. Sorry."

Kate smiled at her reassuringly.

"Thanks Abby, I'm sure this will help us out."

Abby clicked her remote to turn the stereo back on and Kate quickly removed herself from the lab just as blasts of rock music began to assault her.

---

"I'm really glad you called me Agent Dinozzo. A murder outside my own bar, it's hard to believe."

Tony smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry Vicky, these kinds of things just happen sometimes. And call me Tony."

"Okay, Tony." She smiled back at him.

They had just sat down in a private booth at The Sands. Tony thought it would be easiest to eat there, and at the same time question Vicky's sister, Sam who was working up at the bar. Before they could get into a conversation, Sam arrived at their table.

"Hello Agent Dinozzo, Vicky tells me you have some questions about the body found in the parking lot?"

"Sure, and call me Tony."

He turned on his charming smile and looked at her expectantly.

"Ms. Johnson will do."

"But Sam is such a pretty name."

"So I'm told. Do you have any questions for me or not Agent Dinozzo?"

Tony had a look of feigned pain on his face, but he quickly moved past Sam's apparent disinterest in him.

"Why don't we get a drink first? Then yeah, I have a few questions for you."

Sam called a waitress over and they ordered. Soon three drinks arrived at their table.

"So Sam, you were working two nights ago, when Larry Jackson found the body, correct?"

"Yes." Sam replied, seemingly annoyed at the tediousness of the conversation.

"Do you remember anything peculiar about the night?"

She sighed in exasperation.

"Peculiar? What do you consider peculiar Agent Dinozzo? There were a couple of fights that night, a rather rousing rendition of the Marine hymn, and I believe a wrestling match in the back corner. I was in the back for half the night doing paperwork anyway. This really is rather a waste of time."

Vicky glared at Sam. "Answer Tony's questions and you'll be out of here soon."

"Of course."

Tony held out a picture of Lance Corporal Rivers taken from his bunkroom.

"Does this kid look familiar at all?"

Sam looked at the picture. "Not particularly. Maybe a little bit, but he's not one of the regulars."

"Do you remember seeing him here two nights ago?"

"Not really. But like I already told you, I was in the back a lot."

Tony could see he was getting nowhere with this and he decided there was no point in continuing it now.

"Alright Ms. Johnson, you can go."

Sam went back up to the bar and disappeared into the back. Tony continued his dinner with Vicky for a couple hours until eventually making a move to leave.

"Leaving already?"

"Have to get back to the investigation."

She nodded sorrowfully. "Well, dinner is on me, my bar, my treat."

"What? I can't have that. I insist you let me pay for dinner."

She giggled a bit and nodded her assent. Tony laid some bills down on the table and their waitress brought him back the change.

"Call me."

Tony smiled at her one last time then got up and headed towards the door. Just as he was about to step outside, his waitress appeared before him and put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Is there something wrong with the bill?"

"No."

He looked at her curiously.

"I overheard part of your conversation with Sam and Vicky as I was getting your drinks and coming back. I do remember a fairly out of the ordinary fight the other night between one of our regulars and a kid that only comes in every once and awhile."

Tony reached into his pocket and pulled on the photo of Rivers.

"Was this the kid?"

She peered at the photo.

"Yeah that's him alright."

Tony smiled triumphantly.

"Can you tell me about the fight?"

"I don't know what it was about, but it got pretty vicious. Frank knocked the kid really hard and he fell into the pool table. He was bleeding really bad and fumbling around on the ground, looked like he was trying to find something. Then Frank dragged him out the front door and that was it."

Tony perked up immediately, the smile gone from his face as he quickly changed gears.

"The other guy's name is Frank? Corporal Frank Summerville?"

"Yeah that's him, how did you know?"

"He's been missing for days."

The waitress seemed really concerned now.

"I hope he's alright. He was one of the nicer regulars. Always respectful to the bartenders and waitresses, and he was always tipping really well."

Tony nodded. "I really have to go now, can I get in touch with you through the bar if we need to ask more questions?"

"Sure, just ask for Tammy."

"Thanks."

Tony walked quickly to his car where he called Gibbs immediately.

"Gibbs."

"Hey boss, I got something here."

"Spill it."

Tony turned on his car as he was talking.

"Vicky and Sam don't know anything relevant. Sam seemed a little overly hostile, but other than that they both seem a little shook up by the murder."

"Didn't get another black eye did you?"

"Funny. When I was leaving, a waitress stopped me and told me she remembers a bad fight the night Larry Jackson found Rivers' body. I showed her Rivers' picture and she said he was getting the crap beat out of him by a regular, Frank."

Gibbs' tone changed noticeably.

"As in our missing Corporal Frank?"

"I asked. The very same. She said they got into a bad fight, then Summerville practically dragged Rivers out of the bar, and she hasn't seen either since."

"Good work Dinozzo. We're meeting early in the morning to brainstorm."

"See ya boss."

Tony hung up the phone and drove home for the night, not knowing what the others had found out.

---

The next morning they met, practically bursting to tell each other what they had found out the previous day. Gibbs took control of the meeting fast and got it rolling.

"So here's what we know so far. A body that for the moment we are assuming is Lance Corporal Rivers was found in the parking lot in front of the Sands. We can't for sure identify the body but dog tags were found clenched in the hand of the body."

Kate jumped in with what she had learned from Abby the previous day.

"Abby ran tests on the dog tags, turns out they were drenched in alcohol before they were set on fire. The alcohol insulated them from being melted or damaged by the gasoline fire."

"How did they get drenched in alcohol?" Tony asked.

Kate shrugged. "Don't know, but they had to of left his neck for that to happen."

Gibbs seemed skeptical. "Seems a little farfetched for Summerville to have ripped the dog tags off his neck, dipped them in a beer mug then stuff them in his hand. Why not just put them back around his neck? We never would have questioned that."

"The waitress last night, Tammy, said that when Rivers was on the ground he was fumbling around as if searching for something. What if his dog tags got ripped off during the fight and he was looking for them?"

Gibbs and Kate considered Tony's theory for a moment.

"Well," Kate started. "That would explain how they got where they were. He must have been clutching them when Summerville dragged him out of the bar. Maybe Summerville didn't know they were there."

"That makes the most sense, but it's still guesswork. Even assuming it's true, Summerville murdered Rivers and dragged his body out to the parking lot. He torched him and broke his jaw to make him unidentifiable, but didn't know about the tags or assumed they would be ruined in the fire. Why kill him? Where's the motive?"

"It was a drunken bar fight, who knows what the motive was."

Kate turned a withering glare on Tony for his comment.

"Drunk or not, best friends don't kill each other over a bar fight."

"She's right, we're missing something."

They seemed to be at an impasse, but that didn't stop Tony from making a wild guess.

"Well what are the usual motives for murder? Love, money, jealousy. It could be anything."

Gibbs seemed to pick up on something in what Tony said though.

"Money."

"What?" Kate and Tony both said in unison.

"Money, remember that stack of tens we found in Rivers bunk? Who collects ten dollar bills like that?"

"You think Rivers and Summerville were stealing money from the base?" Kate ventured.

"Better than that, think about where Rivers worked."

Tony got it first. "You mean the print office?"

"Bingo."

Kate caught on a second later. "You think they are making counterfeit tens?"

"I think Rivers was, and Summerville was in charge of distributing the money for a profit. They argue over something, maybe Summerville decides he wants more of the take, or Rivers has an attack of consciences and doesn't want to be a part of the deal anymore. Either way, a fight breaks out, and one of them kills the other."

Tony seemed skeptical though. "But how do we prove that?"

"First things first, we search Summerville's room on the base. Check for proof, check for money."

Gibbs nodded in agreement with Kate. "And we have Abby check the money we got from Rivers' room to see if it really is fake or not. If it is, we have ourselves a motive."

They set out for the barracks immediately, pausing only to pick up McGee, who Gibbs had ordered be ready as soon as they left NCIS headquarters. With McGee in tow, they entered the barracks of Corporal Frank Summerville.

"Spread out and search everywhere. If you find the money don't be shy about it. If you see anything else worthwhile let me know immediately."

The team did as Gibbs ordered and spread out around the room. A half hour later, the room in shambles, they met back at the door, empty handed.

"Looks like we might have jumped to conclusions." Tony said.

But Gibbs shook his head. "No, we didn't. There's something around here, we just aren't looking in the right place."

"Where did Rivers hide his computer program that allows him to use the base printers to make the money? That's certainly good proof right there that at least one of them is involved."

Kate turned to answer McGee's question.

"Well we didn't find any computer disks in his room, or a computer for that matter. If there is a program, he'd have needed to bury it on the base computer in the printing office."

Gibbs nodded to McGee. "Then that's where you go."

"Yep." McGee nodded back.

They all stood there for a moment longer and finally Gibbs rolled his eyes and got an impatient look on his face.

"McGee, now."

"Oh!"

McGee rushed out of the room in embarrassment and the rest of them turned to leave as well.

"So where to now then?" Tony asked.

"The only other place on base Summerville was known to frequent."

They soon arrived at the motor pool to find dozens of Marines working on tanks and jeeps in various states of disrepair.


	3. Justification, Judgement & Justice

Gibbs walked in quickly and wasted no time breezing past the young enlisted crew on his way to the sergeant major in charge's office.

"Who are you?" A gruff voice barked at Gibbs as he entered the office.

"Agent Gibbs, NCIS. This is Agent Todd and Agent Dinozzo."

"Oh. Well then, what can I do for you?" His voice softened a bit

"Well Sergeant...?" Gibbs deliberately lowered the man's rank by a degree.

"Colmes. Sergeant Major Colmes actually."

"Well Sergeant Major Colmes. We're here about Corporal Frank Summerville. He's one of your mechanics isn't he?"

Colmes' expression turned grisly again.

"Yes he is, or was, depending on where he really is right now."

"You don't seem to be very fond of the Corporal." Kate ventured aloud.

"He's a smart kid, he knows his way around an engine. But he cuts corners a lot. He takes trucks apart to scrounge the pieces instead of filling out the correct forms to get replacement parts. He likes to do things fast, not careful."

"Sounds like a real winner."

Gibbs nodded in agreement with Tony.

"I don't mind having him on my crew, he does good work. But I wouldn't want to count on him in a combat situation to do what he is told, or to hold to his training."

"Has he ever had an official reprimand?"

Colmes glared at Kate across his desk.

"You haven't checked his file yet I see. I gave him an official reprimand three months ago for disobeying a direct order I gave him about repairing a jeep. And before you ask, he's had several unofficial reprimands too."

"Where do you think he is right now?"

Colmes looked around and up in the air as if searching for an answer. Gibbs thought it a bit theatrical for his tastes, but let the Sergeant Major do his thing.

"It wouldn't surprise me to learn he'd gone AWOL. Or that he'd stolen spare parts from the base and had sold them. I'll be sad to hear that something tragic had happened to him, but nothing will surprise me."

The NCIS team thanked him and made for the door, but Gibbs had one last question.

"One last thing. Is there a place here at the motor pool where Summerville would have kept personal items? A locker or something?"

"Of course. It's down the hall on your left. Should have his name on it."

"Any combination we should know about?"

"No. The lockers don't have locks."

Gibbs thanked him again and they walked down the hall. Immediately they noticed the lockers, and something else that was very interesting. Tony seemed to see it first.

"Well would you look at that. Only one of them has a lock on it. Wanna guess whose it is?"

Sure enough it was Summerville's locker.

"Guess we have to go back and get the lock cutters."

"Don't bother."

Kate swaggered forward with two picks in her hand. She immediately set to work on the lock.

"You can't open a big Masterlock like that with two little bobby pins." Tony smirked.

Just as he finished talking Kate popped the lock off of the locker. She smiled brightly at him and opened the locker.

"You were saying?"

"Explain to me how lock picking is a skill you need to guard the President."

She glared at him a little but refused to be goaded after her victory. Gibbs stepped in front of the locker and began to pull things out. It's contents were sparse.

"Well, look what we have here."

Gibbs pulled out an envelope, which he opened.

"Tens."

He nodded to Kate's statement.

Feeling triumphant, they gathered McGee, who had made a discovery of his own, and headed back to NCIS headquarters.

---

Back at the office, they all met in Abby's lab, eagerly awaiting the results of her tests.

"Well Abbs?"

She grinned broadly. "They're counterfeit."

The whole team breathed sigh of relief and victory.

"How do you know for sure?"

"It passes all visual inspections, but it failed the ultraviolet light inspection. It's definitely counterfeit."

"Why the ten dollar bill though? Why not the twenty? It's the most heavily counterfeited bill in the world isn't it?"

"Exactly Tony. It's far easier to duplicate the ten, which has less security on it than the twenty for that very reason, not as many people bother to counterfeit the ten."

Abby nodded in agreement with Kate.

"How do you know that?" Tony asked.

"I used to work for the Secret Service remember, they were controlled by the Treasury Department."

"Oh."

Abby smiled at their brother and sister like banter, then continued.

"Ten dollar bills really are less secure, and easier to copy. They don't have color shifting ink that's as easy to see as the twenty, the design hasn't been changed as recently as the twenty and fifty, and it has some color shifting ink, but it isn't as advanced."

"But isn't the paper special?"

"It's actually not paper. It's really a cloth. Red and blue fibers are mixed into the cloth, making each bill unique before it's even printed. Try and print the bill out on regular paper and it won't matter how good your printer is, it just won't work. They even feel different. No texture to regular paper, it's too smooth and flimsy."

"But this is made out of the real stuff."

"Yes, which means our counterfeiters got their hands on blank money paper. By all accounts this is a pretty good job. But they missed one of the easiest ways to tell if the money is fake or not."

"What's that?"

"The security thread in the bill. When you hold it up to a light you can see the thread in there. Even on these fake ones you can see it, which might stop the casual observer. It's even in the right position, as each bill places the strip in a different place on the bill. But when held up to ultraviolet light, the strip in a ten dollar bill glows orange."

She waved an ultraviolet lamp over the bills and nothing happened.

"It's the easiest way to tell, and one of the hardest parts of the bill to duplicate."

"It was probably easier for them to get around most of the problems that counterfeiters have by actually working at a government print office. They have access to better scanners, printers, ink and material than your average crook does."

Abby nodded again in agreement with Kate.

"Yeah, but like your average crook they still made a easy to catch foul up that unravels their entire plan and allows the good guys to catch them."

"They made a bigger one than that. If you read the serial numbers on the bills from Rivers' bunk, they only bothered to make about four different sets of serial numbers for their design."

Tony was slow this time to catch on. "Meaning?"

But Kate was happy to bring him back on course. "Meaning if we look through the pile of ten dollar bills, every fourth bill or so will have a matching serial number on it."

"Oh."

Kate and Abby smiled to each other and Tony gave a sarcastic smirk.

"Okay kids, let's settle down a bit. So we know Rivers had these bills. What else? What about the bills we found in Summerville's locker?"

Kate took them out and handed them to Abby who waved an ultraviolet lamp over them. Nothing happened.

"Fake." Abby announced.

"McGee? What did you find in the base computer?"

"About what you expected. He had a file with the front and back images of the bill buried pretty deep in the mainframe. It was in his personal records on the database, I don't think he expected anyone to go looking there. Once I got into his records, it was one of the most recently accessed files."

Tony had pulled out a ten dollar bill of his own and was comparing the two side by side.

"Gotta give them some credit. I can't tell the difference."

Everyone peered at the two bills he held in his hands and nodded their agreement. Tony went to put them on the table but missed and they fluttered to the floor. He picked them both back up and still couldn't tell the difference.

"Uh, Abbs, you wanna help me here?"

She laughed at him and waved her ultraviolet lamp over the two bills. Her smile quickly died when nothing happened.

"Abby?"

"I don't get it. They are both counterfeit."

Gibbs turned to look at Tony accusingly. "Tony?"

"What Boss?" Tony answered innocently.

"Where did you get that ten?"

"It's the change I got last night."

Gibbs looked surprised. "You mean from your interview with the bar owner? Where did you take her?"

"The Sands."

Everyone rocked back a bit as that information sunk in. Abby meanwhile was comparing Tony's counterfeit note to the others.

"It's one of the four serial number combinations. It came from the Rivers batch."

"Looks like we need to pay one more visit to the The Sands." Said Tony as a smile formed on his face.

"Simmer down lover boy. Kate, I want you to check Summerville's history, also check Rivers and Victoria Johnson, the bar owner. Pay attention to any connections they might have together. Johnson just may be how they are moving their money and getting real money back."

Kate nodded and left the room to get to work.

"Tony, let's go."

---

Ten minutes later they were in Gibbs' car on their way to The Sands.

"Did they seem strange at all to you when you questioned them?"

"Not Vicky. She seemed innocent, and smart, just trying to run a business. Samantha on the other hand, she was a tough cookie. Acted like she had some place better to be, and wanted nothing to do with me. Can't imagine why."

"Yeah." Gibbs said as he rolled his eyes. They were just pulling into the parking lot when Gibbs' cell phone rang.

"Gibbs."

"Gibbs, it's Kate."

"What've you got?"

"Victoria Johnson has no connections to Rivers or Summerville. But Rivers and Summerville actually went to high school together, these two go way back. But while Victoria has no connection, I checked Samantha Johnson too."

"And?" Gibbs asked expectantly.

"Her and Summerville were married for a year. They divorced four months ago. They married at the local city hall, Rivers was the witness."

"Well, looks like we have our connection."

"I checked something else too while I was looking at personnel records. Summerville was five inches taller than Rivers, there's no way the body could be his."  
"So it's Rivers?"

"Most likely. But that also counts Summerville out as the murdered. Abby said the angle of attack was from someone shorter than Rivers."

Gibbs took that in turn. "We'll see about that. Gibbs out."

He closed his phone down and they walked into the bar.

---

Once inside, Gibbs made his way to the bar with no delays.

"Are you Samantha Johnson?"

The woman at the bar turned around and smiled broadly.

"I'm Victoria, we met a few days ago when they found that poor marine's body in the parking lot. What can I do for you Agent Gibbs?"

Gibbs eyed her warily.

"Can you tell me where your sister is?"

She shrugged. "No idea, she isn't working today."

Again Gibbs stared her down, but she met his stare unwaveringly. Gibbs nodded to her and moved for the door, leaving his back to her. As soon as he stepped outside, Tony broke into a dead run around the rear of the building with Gibbs hot on his heels.

Tony arrived around the corner of the bar just in time to see Johnson burst from the rear door and bolt for her car.

"Freeze!" Tony yelled, drawing his gun as he chased her to her car.

She didn't slow at all, and soon she was opening the door to her car. Tony who was right behind her leapt into the air and slammed into her car door, shutting it and knocking her to the ground. Gibbs, who was right behind him traversed to his right and knelt behind Johnson, quickly snapping handcuffs around her wrists.

"Samantha Johnson, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and counterfeiting. You have the right to remain silent, if you choose to give up that right, anything you say can and most definitely will be held against you in a court of law, you have a right to an attorney, if you are not able to afford an attorney, which I would find highly surprising at the moment, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

She screamed indescribable gibberish as Gibbs hauled her to her feet. "I'll take that as a yes."

Tony had finally gotten to his feet after shaking off the impact with the car.

"Good job boss."

"Dinozzo, I must say I'm surprised. Maybe I was wrong about you."

Tony beamed. "Thanks boss, but what for?"

"I knew she wasn't Victoria Johnson as soon as she said she remembered meeting me and said my name. I never met her; I let you handle the interview with her. I don't even know how she knows my name. But I never thought you'd pick up on that so fast."

Tony looked confused. "She didn't know your name?"

Now it was Gibbs' turn to be confused.

"Wait, if you didn't know she was lying, how did you figure out she wasn't really Victoria?"

"Obviously. The entire time you were talking to her she kept her eyes locked with yours. She didn't even try to check me out once. Obviously she wasn't Victoria."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Dinzzo..."

"Yeah boss?"

"Nothing." Gibbs said then muttered under his breath: "Another blind squirrel finds an acorn."---

---

Soon they were back at NCIS headquarters with Samantha Johnson in custody. Kate met them in the interrogation room.

"So what do you think?" She asked.

"We have good circumstantial evidence to pin her to the counterfeiting racket. We know how it works. Rivers supplies the fake money, Summerville gives it to Johnson, Johnson gives the money back as change at the bar and shares the profits from that with Summerville, who passes along his cut to Rivers. Fairly simplistic as far as these operations go."

"Alright, but that still doesn't tell us who that body we have is. All evidence so far supports Rivers. And if it is Rivers, where is Corporal Summerville?"

Gibbs nodded. "Let's find out."

He walked into the interrogation room with Tony and Kate watching him on the glass behind him.

"So tell me Mrs. Summerville-"

"Ms. Johnson will do, thank you."

"Ms. Johnson then. Where is Corporal Frank Summerville?"

"He's dead. I believe you have his body in your morgue."

Gibbs looked down at the palm pilot set up in front of him and saw words appear from Kate on the other side of the glass.

TOO HOSTILE. WHAT'S SHE HIDING?

"Where is your sister?"

"At home I suspect. She really wasn't working today."

"Is she in on your little scheme?"

Sam Johnson snorted in disgust.

"Yeah right, that twit couldn't even run that bar without me. There's no way she could run a counterfeiting racket. I ran my end alone"

Gibbs smiled triumphantly and Sam's eyes widened in shock as she realized she'd just confessed.

"So she was totally in the dark?"

Sam refused to speak now.

"Well that's fine. I have an agent on his way to her house now. I'm sure once she gets here you can both start talking."

He got up and moved towards the door. "And if not, I hope you two will enjoy a cell together for the next few days. We don't usually put two people in solitary confinement, it is solitary after all, but I guess we can make an exception in this case."

Sam appeared about to crack, and as Gibbs opened the door she burst out.

"Okay!"

Gibbs turned back to face her. "Yes?"

"I'll talk. Just keep her as far away from me as possible."

Gibbs nodded to her and gestured for her to begin talking.

"Frank is at my house. He killed James."

"Why?"

"James told us two weeks ago that he wanted out. It was becoming too risky to keep stealing the supplies and he felt bad about what he was doing. He said for my sake he would keep doing it long enough to let me get the bar's finances in order, but that he wanted to stop as soon as possible."

"An attack of morality."

She scoffed at that. "I never trusted the little twerp. I knew it wouldn't last forever. He was using his take of the money to pay for his grandparents' nursing home stay or something like that. But Frank refused to let him off so easily. They didn't speak for days after James told him. Frank figured if he threatened James six ways from Sunday, he would crumble and keep doing it."

"But that didn't work."

"No it didn't. James still said no. Frank invited him here to discuss the matter as a group. We met, we talked, but James said no. Like I said before, he agreed to keep it going for a little while so we could all be okay when he stopped, but he wouldn't budge beyond that."

Gibbs moved slightly to make sure the tape recorder on the table was working correctly, then continued.

"What started the fight between them?"

"You heard about that did you? Guess one of my waitresses talked. Frank was really drunk at that point. He started pushing James when things weren't working out. I was hanging in the back, but I saw what happened next. Frank ripped James' dog tags from his neck and threw them to the ground, then he shoved him really hard."

"Where did the dog tags land?"

"Somewhere on the ground, but they got soaked with beer when James fell into a table. When he tripped over the table, he fell hard into the pool table and cracked his head against it really well. He crawled on the ground some, probably looking for his dog tags. The kid was really proud of those, thought they were a badge of honor."

"Then what?"

"I don't know what happened then. Last I saw, Frank was helping James out the front door, and I went into the back and left."

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks."

He got up and walked towards the door.

"Wait, what will happen to me?"

Gibbs turned. "You broke federal law, it's out of my hands."

Sam sputtered as Gibbs walked out and closed the door on her. Kate and Tony were waiting for him.

"We'd better get going then."

Kate nodded and they rushed out of the office for Gibbs' car.

---

At Sam's house, they searched and found Corporal Frank Summerville upstairs. He made no attempt to resist arrest, and they read him his rights before returning with him to the office. Afterwards they met in the conference room to finish up the details of the case.

"Well I guess that explains the angle of attack. When he fell against the pool table that must have fractured his skull."

Gibbs nodded to Abby.

"He talked immediately when we got him back here. He thought Rivers was dead, but didn't want the trouble his death would cause to be traced back to him. So he drenched him in gasoline and torched him. He didn't realize he was still alive until Rivers started screaming. That's when he kicked him in the face to break his jaw. Rivers died shortly afterwards."

"What about Victoria, was she really in the dark about the whole thing?"

"Of course she was!" Tony piped in.

"Lover boy is right, and apparently so was Sam. She really was pretty clueless when it came to the bar. Sam ran everything, and showed Victoria her profits at the end of the month. Victoria never bothered to question any of it."

"Too bad about Rivers. He really was a good kid, just chose to do one thing wrong and that ended up killing him." Tony opined.

"Careful Tony," Kate cautioned. "The ends don't always justify the means."

"He was just a kid."

Gibbs ended the conversation.

"Most of them are just kids. Now get back to work. You have piles on your desks full of kids. Make something good happen for them."

Kate and Tony got up and went back to their desks and Abby back to her lab. Gibbs looked around the empty conference room and sighed at the tragic loss.

"Oh well, back to work."

End.

((All characters from Navy NCIS are the property of CBS and David Bellisario. This is but my hopefully accurate attempt to create a new adventure for them. Let me know if you liked it, I may write another. I'm not a fan of the fanfics where crazy stuff and romances happen with the characters, but I'm good with case files like these. Readers who enjoy Lord of the Rings (also Monty Python and Star Wars), might enjoy my Parody of the Rings: The Fellowship. Feel free to check it out, it's pretty funny))


	4. A Quick Note on the Title

Incidentally, for those who are curious. Veritas et Aequitas is Latin for Truth and Justice.


End file.
